Planting Perennials

I am a gardener in no way, shape, or form. I managed to keep a peace lily alive for a year without ever realizing that it was supposed to have blooms. I thought it was just a lovely green plant. Then my mom started to water it, and it started getting these weird-looking bulbs at the end of the stalks, which I assumed were some mutant green plant virus, so I clipped them off. Then I went out of town, leaving the mutant things alone and my mom in charge... and came home to find a peace lily with beautiful blooms. I was convinced my mom had switched the plant. I was wrong. Anyway, that is just proof that I am anything but a green thumb.

However, in the name of home-ownership, I have decided to try my best to have at least a nice little border of something in my front yard. There is already a hydrangea bush that I am trying my hardest to keep from dying, and some little green things. And now is the time to plant myself some perennials.

Perennials, for the gardening illiterate, are flowers that you plant once and then they keep coming back year after year. Sweet! And dirt cheap... no pun intended? I went to a local store and picked up 50 jonquil bulbs (also known as daffodils) for $14.95 plus tax. Even if you only have a small patch of garden, think of how awesome it will be when, come spring time, up pop these bright and happy flowers? Tulips are also perennials; I am just partial to jonquils because they are my birth month flower! And yellow is my favorite color.

So today, I set out to plant (with the help of my green-thumbed mom) about 25 daffodil bulbs in my front yard. By digging down about 8 inches and planting bulbs 5 inches across, my blooms should have plenty of room to do their thing. We also added a little fertilizer in the hole to help things along. If Martha Stewart were there, she would have added some compost, but we can't all be perfect.

I'll update you in March as to how this whole experiment went... but for now I feel pretty confident about my adventures in gardening!